For a large part of this year I’ve been working on a collection of Terminator-inspired short stories. if you’re wondering “why…?” then you can read my introduction for the collection below, or you can always just skip right ahead and download the ebook from a variety of online bookshops (for free) or grab the epub directly right here.
It was the year of Star Wars and The Sex Pistols—two pop culture phenonema that couldn’t be further apart which but had a lasting impact on film and music. It was a year that encapsulated escaping from things past and launching boldly into whatever was going to come next. Even NASA was playing the game, launching various test flights of its new, future-facing space shuttle. It was the year of the Queen’s silver jubilee and the UK went crazy for it; I remember street parties and celebrations. I remember my Mum dressing me up as a cavalier (cool costume!) and we went to Windsor for what I assume was the lighting of the bonfire at Snow Hill on June 6. It was also the year that I started going to see movies at the cinema.
And what was Hollywood up to …?
- Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind
- The French Connection
- Saturday Night Fever
- The Spy Who Loved Me
- Swedish Nympho Slaves
- Slap Shot
- Eraserhead
- Looking For Mr Goodbar
- Smokey and the Bandit
- A Bridge Too Far
- Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope
- Smokey and the Bandit
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind
- Saturday Night Fever
- A Bridge Too Far
- The Deep
- The Spy Who Loved Me
- Oh, God!
- Annie Hall
- Semi-Tough
This marks the first year that I can finally access global box office stats. As such I won’t be using the North America box office top ten any more. While I expect the majority of the films that appear in the top ten will still be US-produced, I’m far more comfortable having a list that comes a little closer to reflecting what people around the world were paying to see at their local cinemas. However, there is also something a bit wrong in the IMDB top ten … which will be made plain if you inspect the number six entry up there. Given the ‘best films of the year’ is always going to be highly subjective, I think the IMDB list is as useful a barometer as any even if there’s something a bit skewiff with its algorithm. Either way, using both list allows me to see how the most popular contemporary films of the year relate to the most popular retrospective films of the same year.
1976 was the year of the big summer heatwave in the UK, which I have a vague memory of as “that one time we actually got summer”. I expect I spent a lot of time in my paddling pool. It was also the year that Apple Computer Company formed and released its first computer (handy, given their name) and a space shuttle called Enterprise was unveiled. Like the real Enterprise it couldn’t actually go into space, but it was a cool bit of publicity all the same. Meanwhile, the UK and Iceland ended that third cod war, much to the relief of political superpowers across the globe.
- Carrie
- Taxi Driver
- The Omen
- Rocky
- Logan’s Run
- Murder By Death
- All The President’s Men
- The Enforcer
- A Star Is Born
- Midway
- Rocky
- To Fly!
- A Star Is Born
- King Kong
- Silver Streak
- All The President’s Men
- The Omen
- The Enforcer
- Midway
- The Bad News Bears
For a while there I thought 1976 might be the year I finally saw some of these movies in the cinema: I distinctly remember watching King Kong and The Pink Panther Strikes Again on the big screen. However, given both of these movies were released on Boxing Day 1976 in the UK I very much expect I wouldn’t have seen them until the subsequent year (remember, movies hung around a lot longer back in those days!)
While neither of those movies are particularly memorable, it was otherwise an exceptionally solid year for cinema—just look at that IMDB top 5! And plenty of quality picks lower down in the list too. Let’s get into it.
It’s the hump year of the seventies, the year that Bill Gates and another guy [Paul Allen: let’s give credit where it’s due] founded a company called Micro-Soft and the Vietnam War ended with the fall of Saigon. Meanwhile, the UK and Iceland, obviously thinking there weren’t enough wars in the world, began their third war over cod. Finally, actor Pedro Pascal, best known for his bit part in a season 5 episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, was born. Also, some films came out. Let’s talk about those.
- Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show
- Jaws
- One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail
- Barry Lyndon
- Dog Day Afternoon
- Death Race 2000
- Deep Red
- Mr Ricco
- Jaws
- One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
- Shampoo
- Dog Day Afternoon
- The Return Of The Pink Panther
- Three Days Of The Condor
- Funny Lady
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show
- The Other Side Of The Mountain
- Tommy
I can’t recall the very first time I visited the cinema. I do remember going to see various Disney rereleases (such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) and I do remember my local Odeon doing a Saturday morning cinema thing. There was at least one occasion where I decided it was more fun to run up and down the aisles than to watch the film, much to the annoyance of some of the other cinemagoers. Hopefully the fact that I remember this moment means I quickly took it to heart and was less disruptive at future screenings.
All of that’s just a roundabout way of saying that 1975 might be the year I first went to the cinema but it also might not! That said, I can definitely confirm that I didn’t see any of the movies we’re about to discuss in the year of their release. Let’s move on.
It’s 1974—the year that Nixon resigned, ABBA won Eurovision (down in sunny old Brighton, no less), and an English teacher called Mr King published his first novel, entitled Carrie. Now, join me as we talk about none of those things.
IMDB Top Ten (by popularity) (link)
- The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
- The Godfather: Part II
- Young Frankenstein
- Blazing Saddles
- Emmanuelle
- Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
- The Conversation
- Chinatown
- Murder On The Orient Express
- The Man With The Golden Gun
US & Canada Box Office Top Ten (link)
- Blazing Saddles
- The Towering Inferno
- The Trial Of Billy Jack
- Young Frankenstein
- Earthquake
- The Godfather: Part II
- Airport 1975
- The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams
- The Longest Yard
- Murder On The Orient Express
We’re not even halfway through the seventies and we can already see one of the genres that defined the decade peaking, as well as Mel Brooks more or less single-handedly elevating the satire to blockbuster status. Not only that but we get a number of titles that could comfortably wear the title of Best Film Ever in their respective genres. It might not be my personal best year ever for cinema but it could be a pretty strong contender.
So, without any more waffle … what’s good? What’s not? What’s unseen? What’s missing? Read on!
I’m blogging about the top ten (more or less) movies of every year since I was born. This week it’s time to delve into 1973 where things are starting to pick up.
IMDB Top Ten (by popularity (link)
- The Exorcist
- Soylent Green
- The Wicker Man
- American Graffiti
- The Day Of The Jackal
- The Holy Mountain
- The Sting
- Westworld
- The Long Goodbye
- Serpico
US & Canada Box Office Top Ten (link)
- The Exorcist
- The Sting
- American Graffiti
- Papillon
- The Way We Were
- Magnum Force
- Live and Let Die
- Robin Hood
- Paper Moon
- Serpico
As per above I’m using two sources for my top ten lists. First is IMDB filtered by year and sorted by Popularity (doing this with User Rating, which would seem the sensible way to go produces … unexpected results). Finding reliable box office rankings is a bit tricky, so for 1971 thru 1976 I’ll be using the North America box office published on The Numbers. From 1977 I’ll be able to use worldwide box office, which will be a bit less geographically biassed. Either way, the goal here is not to provide definite statistics, but simply to provide a nominal list of top movies from the year, both contemporary and retrospectively, with which I can then embarrass myself by revealing how many classic works of modern cinema I’ve failed to see!
I’m blogging about the top ten (more or less) movies of every year since I was born. This week we delve into 1972.
- The Godfather
- Jeremiah Johnson
- Deliverance
- Last Tango In Paris
- The Poseidon Adventure
- Travels With My Aunt
- Pink Flamingos
- The Last House On The Left
- Cabaret
- The Getaway
- The Godfather
- The Poseidon Adventure
- What’s Up, Doc?
- Deliverance
- Deep Throat
- Jeremiah Johnson
- Cabaret
- The Getaway
- Last Tango In Paris
- Lady Sings The Blues
With a couple of notable exceptions it looks like 1972 was not so much of a banner year for cinema. That being said, we’re certainly in an interesting transitional stage—budding blockbuster giants like The Godfather, The Poseidon Adventure and more traditional titles such as What’s Up Doc and Jeremiah Johnson share the stage with subversive fare like Pink Flamingos, Deep Throat while Last Tango In Paris further blurs those boundaries. We’re definitely moving … somewhere.
Unsurprisingly, this is a year of movies that I remember my parents talking about, and directly introducing me to in a few cases. Despite that, it’s remarkable how few of the titles listed above I’ve actually seen. So let’s get into it.
I’m blogging about the top ten (more or less) movies of every year since I was born. It’s gonna take a while …
IMDB Top Ten (link)
- A Clockwork Orange
- Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
- The French Connection
- The Last Picture Show
- Dirty Harry
- Get Carter
- THX 1138
- Straw Dogs
- Klute
- Summer of ‘42
US Box Office Top Ten (link)
- Billy Jack
- Fiddler on the Roof
- Diamonds Are Forever
- The French Connection
- Summer of ‘42
- Dirty Harry
- A Clockwork Orange
- The Last Picture Show
- Bedknobs and Broomsticks
- Sweet Sweetback’s Baad Asssss Song
Inspired by my friend Clay’s roundup of the top 25 movies of 1999 I’ve decided to blog about the top ten (sorta) movies from every year since I was born. I won’t be fully reviewing each movie because that would be ridiculous, instead I’ll briefly share my personal connection with the movie … including whether or not I’ve even seen it! Since biggest doesn’t necessarily mean best, I’ll be working from both the box office stats for the year and the IMDB rankings. In researching this project I’ve discovered that detailed box office records aren’t available prior to 1977.
My preference going forward will be to use the worldwide box office top 10 as reference, but for 1971 through to 1976 I only have access to the US data. If anyone can point me to a better source than the above listings then please let me know in the comments.
So, 1917 was the year I was born – no, wait—1971. Obviously I didn’t go to the cinema at all that year … at least as far as I know … but I’ve definitely seen several of its movies. Read on to find out what I’ve seen, what I’ve not seen, and what I think is also worthy of note. Let’s begin!
It’s New Year’s Eve 2023 (around 8am) which means it’s the ideal time for me to do my traditional recap of my writing efforts over the year.
The routine
I’ve already recapped the first half of the year right here, so I won’t retread that old ground suffice to say that things have mostly slipped into routine again but I do still need to nail down a proper writing schedule / habit / whatever. For the latter half of 2023 I more or less accepted that I was going to be able to write in the mornings on alternating weeks (for reasons that are far too domestic to bore you with here). While I did find a couple of suitable spots in my workplace I never truly settled on a single, ideal location—it didn’t help that sometimes other people had the audacity to already be sitting in the publically available location that I had preselected for my morning’s writing. People, eh?
So, while I got writing done during the year there was a continual distraction revolving around finding the right place to sit and write, or having to find an alternative place depending on the whims of the rest of the human race.
One thing I did find happening was the occasional urge to write in the evenings: something of a problem given I’d gotten rid of my writing desk. I considered a few possibilities, including writing at my main PC in the front room (oddly, I’ve never felt that comfortable writing on the PC; likely because there’s too much scope for distraction—something that doesn’t happen so much with the ipad). In the end the best solution appeared to be a slight rearrangement of the bedroom (really, the only place sufficiently free of interruption for me to write in) and the purchase of a suitably small desk that wouldn’t prove an obstruction.
After a fair bit of research (and the disappointing lack of availability of what would have been the perfect desk) I settled for a small 60x40cm desk (my purchase decision helped by a healthy discount) and that’s what I’m writing at right now.
If you noted the time at the top of this post you might have already concluded that I’m using this desk for morning writing as well. I’ve tried it out for the last couple of days and, yes, it looks like doing my morning writing before I leave for work may, again, be the best option. We do have some incoming changes to the household morning routine next year (primarily two kids starting high school) so flexibility is going to remain the order of the day for at least a few months yet.
The writing
As per 2022 I opted not to record my word counts in the traditional spreadsheet. I’m still reasonably happy with this approach, though not fully committed, and plan to continue not doing this for 2024. The disadvantage is that I lose the quick at-a-glance reference for all of my writing over the year, but the plus side is that I won’t punish myself when I see how (potentially) low my word counts were.
Starting with a brief summary:
- Stories finished: 6
- Stories started: 4
One of the major issues with Scrivener (my preferred writing tool) is that it doesn’t provide a revision history, so I get no visibility of the various dates and times that I might have worked on a story. That being noted, I’m fairly certain that all of these stories were started this year, so I’m pretty happy with that output.
Finished stories
Four of those finished stories would count as fan-fiction, inspired separately by Alien, The Thing, The Terminator and an episode of Cabinet of Curiosities on Netflix. During the earlier part of the year I found myself needing to write, but lacking the focus to properly develop new stories and characters so dabbling in pre-established universes helped take some of that load off. You can read three of these stories by following the links below:
The Terminator story is part of a planned collection (as outlined in my earlier blog post). There will be five stories—at least that’s the current plan—and I hope to wrap this project up (and release all the stories together) early in 2024.
Of the two other stories one was an unplanned tale inspired by a Magritte painting. It’s predictable, but entertaining and you can read it by following the link below.
The final story was, I believe, inspired by a book I read at the end of last year about the cosmos (The Universe in Your Hand by Christophe Galfard- very good, go and read it if that’s your sort of thing). I’m holding this one back as it’s probably the only story I’ve written this year that is actually submittable for publication anywhere. We’ll see …
Unfinished stories
Of the four unfinished stories, only one of them has been worked on with any degree of earnestness. This is the story I mentioned in my mid-year post about an explorer who discovers a deeply buried secret about the origin of his society. It’s ended up being two stories mashed together and has required a greater degree of world-building than I’m typically used to. And, because I need to make things as hard as possible I’ve opted to tell it using a non-linear narrative with the last half of the story being told backwards. You can probably blame all of the Christopher Nolan films I’ve watched this year for that.
I have written a reasonable chunk of this one and it’s my next writing priority, so keep your fingers crossed that I can pull this one off.
The other three stories were all random ideas that popped up during the year and I’ll share the prompts that got me started on these for your entertainment:
- what if being ‘wishlisted’ meant something sinister? what if you were being wishlisted? and for what?
- what if there was a literal price for death? a cost associated with every death that you cause, whether deliberate or accidental? (this one very much inspired by the movie In Time, which is pretty good!)
- two people hunting each other across a remote planet, neither remembering why (this is the same story I referenced in my previous blog post)
Other projects and novels
I have three other projects that remain very close to my heart, and which I would also like to make progress on in 2024 (somehow this post has shifted from 2023 reflection into a 2024 resolution!)
My collection of short stories linked together by the end of the universe is still very much on the front burner. I mostly need to organise what I’ve done already and work out where the gaps are so I can plan to get those bits written.
The completed novel. Yes, I did complete a novel a year or two ago. While I’m 95% happy with it, I still want to do a final edit before I attempt to send it out. I enjoy editing, but I’m mindful that time spent editing is time not spent writing so I need to be wary of falling into an editing hole for weeks on end.
The sci-fi novel. I wrote about half of a sci-fi novel a few years back. The idea of it keeps on popping back onto my head demanding to be finished. I stalled on this one due to a few small issues with plot logistics, but those are mostly solved now so it’s just a case of refreshing my plans for it and knuckling down. Maybe something for the latter half of next year?
And that’s it! Tune in during 2024 for inevitable updates and wish me luck. In return, I wish you all the best for your writing endeavours or wherever your hobbies or passions take you in 2024.
At some point in the recent past I was struck with an urge to read Who Goes There?, the John W. Campbell novella that inspired one of my favourite movies, The Thing. I can’t recall where that urge came from—maybe it was nothing more than a desire to read something new and yet also familiar—but it was suddenly very important that I read it. Unfortunately it turned out that I did not, in fact, own a copy of Who Goes There? nor could I find a sufficiently cheap copy online that would arrive quick enough to scratch the itch.
What I did have, I soon remembered, was an ebook of Frozen Hell, the original version of Campbell’s novella which I had picked up through Kickstarter several years earlier. This version had been discovered among Campbell’s papers some years after his death. By all accounts it is largely the same as the eventual published version, the inclusion of three introductory chapters being the major difference from the novella.
Reading this triggered something of a descent into a rabbit hole during which I read almost everything Thing-related that I could get my hands on and—because this is how things work—my thoughts on all of them are below!